A nationwide evaluation of several CAM procedures including anthroposophical medicine, homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, phytotherapy, and NT was performed to decide about the inclusion of CAM procedures in compulsory health plans beyond the trial period.
However, other authors have discussed this and found that inclusion of bilateral procedures did not alter the results [61, 62].
Details of the inclusion of subjects, procedures of data collection, and measures have been described in previous reports [ 2, 30].
Traditional barriers to introduction of new methods in health education and oral health strategies in the field include time constraints, inclusion of dental procedures [ 16], lack of knowledge [ 8], and confidence related to the proposed activities [ 18].
Further, it was decided that a nationwide evaluation of the respective CAM therapies had to be performed allowing an evidence-based decision about longer-term inclusion of CAM procedures in compulsory health plans.
This finding supports the routine inclusion of this procedure in standard care, as is recommended in most recent guidelines and quality improvement initiatives [ 27].
The limitations of the present study include the retrospective study design, which might have allowed the inclusion of inaccurate procedure data, such as the insertion depth estimates.
Further studies with larger sample size and inclusion of the procedure withdrawal time would be needed to better evaluate the quality of screening colonoscopies in Iran.
HG and KK: Initiated the study, involved in study design, inclusion of patients, study procedures, data analysis and interpretation.
The MDS of Catalonia is an exhaustive and systematic registry with mandatory inclusion of all surgical procedures performed in the public health system.
A strength of our study is the inclusion of multiple statistical procedures for assessment of validity and is consistent with the Guidelines for Reporting Reliability and Agreement Studies (GRRAS) [ 27].
